Major acts of unfair competition are summarized below.
Chapter 1
• Using a famous brand belonging to another party for advertising purposes.
• Marketing an imitation product that is identical to the real product within
three years from the day it was marketed.
• Acquiring and using confidential information of another company such as
technical manufacturing information and customer information through unfair means such as fraud or theft.
• Providing false information about the origin, quality, contents, manufacturing method, application, and quantity of goods.
• Circulating falsified facts or rumors that damage the business reputation of
another competitor.
• Acquir ing and abusing the domain name of a famous corporation before it is
officially created.
Corporate and legal affairs
The Unfair Competition Prevention Act allows for injunctions to be made
against infringing persons, and provides measures for restoring the reputation of the business. It also facilitates the seeking of damages based on the
estimated amount of damages, and the filing of a criminal case in the event
of infringement.
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Software license
A “software license” refers to the right to use software, and is granted by
the software maker to the purchaser.
(1)Software and copyright
Software is protected under the Copyright Act. Any illegal copying of software is a clear copyright infringement and considered a criminal act. The
scope of protection under the Copyright Act is summarized below.
Area
Scope of protection
Not protected
Programs and
related
• Programs
(Source programs, object programs, application program,
operating systems)
• Solutions for programs
• Algorithms
• Languages for creating
programs
• Rules
Data and
related
• Databases
• Data
Multimedia and
related
• Websites
• Still images from design content collection
• Moving images from design
content collection
• Audio clips from design content collection
Reference
Public domain software
“Public domain software” refers to software in which the copyrights have been
disclaimed.
Since the creator disclaims all rights,
those who obtain the software may use
it free of charge or alter the software at
will.
Reference
Digital watermarking
“Digital watermarking” is the process of
embedding digital information such as
images and audio with special information to the extent that it does not affect
the integrity of the quality. Digital watermarking is used to protect copyrights by
guarding against unauthorized copying
and alteration.
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